Colin Echeverría AitkenAssistant Professor of Biology

At a molecular level, life requires the interpretation of the information stored in genes to synthesize the functional molecules for which each gene is a recipe. I study the molecular machinery that reads genes to assemble protein molecules. Because proteins are largely responsible for performing the myriad molecular tasks of life, this translation process is essential to life, enabling cells to grow, develop, and respond to external stimuli. Not surprisingly, translation is highly regulated in healthy cells. This regulation is disrupted during viral infection, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and many other maladies. Our lab studies how the ribosome — an ancient molecular machine responsible for assembling proteins in all forms of life — is assembled on a gene and prepared to synthesize protein. This initiation event is one of the most important readings of the genetic code and is the focus of most cellular regulation of translation. We interrogate translation initiation at the molecular level by purifying the individual molecular components involved in this pathway, enabling us to reconstitute translation initiation within a test tube and investigate it using biochemical and biophysical tools. To complement this approach, we make use of next-generation sequencing technologies that permit us to follow the position of individual ribosomes on every gene being translated in living cells.